Whiteside, Victoria
(2023)
An Exploratory Study of Graduate Employability in the Kurdistan Region – Iraq.
Doctor of Education thesis, University of Liverpool.
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Abstract
This case study explores graduate employability within the Kurdistan Region-Iraq (KRI). A region whose government adopted a rentier style of governance and which until 2014 placed thousands of graduates of public higher educational institutions (HEIs) into public sector employment, thereby masking true unemployment rates. In 2014, the government introduced a public sector hiring freeze. Four years later, the youth unemployment rate for those with a high school diploma or higher stood at 15 percent (KRSO, 2018). A UNESCO (2019) labour market report shows that employers in KRI are dissatisfied with local graduates’ foreign language skills and specialised knowledge as well as other complaints that sometimes results in a preference for hiring foreign workers over local workers. The results of the UNESCO report allude to the need for higher education students in KRI to upskill themselves while at university. However, are graduates truly in control over their graduate employability or are there other factors external to graduates that negatively impact it? Using Bourdieu’s (1977, 1986, 2002) theories of habitus and capital and Freire’s (1970/2014) critical pedagogy to conceptualise the data, this study explores why some graduates are more employable than others, which stakeholders are considered responsible for graduate employability, what policies and practices external to graduates impact their graduate employability, and finally, how HEIs in KRI can improve their students’ employability. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with individuals who represent four stakeholders, namely private sector employers, government ministry employees, academic and administrative staff of private and public HEIs, and training providers. The overall picture from the findings show that graduates of private HEIs are more employable than graduates of public HEIs, that policies and practices external to graduates impact their employability positively and negatively, and that improvements in pedagogy, the internship programme, and degree programmes offered could improve graduate employability.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctor of Education) |
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| Uncontrolled Keywords: | graduate employability, Kurdistan Region-Iraq, higher education reform, habitus, cultural capital, social capital, wasta, critical pedagogy |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Histories, Languages and Cultures |
| Depositing User: | Symplectic Admin |
| Date Deposited: | 30 Nov 2023 10:34 |
| Last Modified: | 30 Nov 2023 10:34 |
| DOI: | 10.17638/03173425 |
| Supervisors: |
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| URI: | https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3173425 |
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